SHARPSVILLE, PA. Hermitage police offer is declined

Borough police agreed to cost-cutting concessions in their contract.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- Borough council said, 'Thanks, but no thanks' to the city of Hermitage's offer to take over police services for Sharpsville.
Council members said they've negotiated a change in their own police contract that will enable Sharpsville to keep its own police department.
It was Sharpsville that asked Hermitage six months ago for proposals to begin providing police services in the borough.
Sharpsville is paying $530,000 for its own department this year and had projected that cost to rise to about $554,000 in 2004.
The borough was looking for a way to reduce costs and thought that closing its department and buying police protection from Hermitage might be a way to do it.
Sharpsville police have a clause in their contract that stipulates they must be guaranteed a job should the borough disband its department and buy services elsewhere.
The borough has a complement of five full-time and five part-time officers but has only four full-time and five part-time employees working right now.
Hermitage offered a deal in which it would hire four Sharpsville officers and charge the borough $354,000 for the first year of service. That cost would rise to $549,000 over five years.
One of the Sharpsville officers is eligible to retire, and should that happen, Hermitage would take three officers, and the service charge would be $345,000 in the first year, again rising to $549,000 in the fifth year.
Borough changes
Borough council publicly thanked Hermitage for its offer at council's meeting Wednesday.
Councilman Thomas Lally, chairman of council's personnel committee, said the Sharpsville Fraternal Order of Police has agreed to an amendment to its current contract that will allow the borough to make more use of part-time officers for the remainder of this year and all of 2004 and 2005.
It will greatly reduce overtime costs and should reduce the police budget for next year to $463,000, even with the filling of the vacant fifth full-time position, Lally said.
The borough will now be able to fill the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift, which overlaps the normal 4 p.m. to midnight and midnight to 8 a.m. shifts, with part-time officers. Full-time officers filled that slot on an overtime basis in the past, Lally said.
Council voted to accept the contract amendment and in related votes:
UDirected the civil service commission to begin testing for a fifth full-time officer.
URaised the salary of part-time officers from $9 an hour to $11 an hour for the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift and $13 for all other shifts.
UDirected the CSC to give acting chief Keith Falasco a noncompetitive chief's test in anticipation of making his appointment permanent.
gwin@vindy.com